


Ploy

by AngelofDarkness1605



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 06:46:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3800770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelofDarkness1605/pseuds/AngelofDarkness1605
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sick and tired of Will’s insistence that Mr. Gold likes her as much as she likes him, Belle agrees to participate in Will’s outlandish plan to get the two of them together only to prove her friend's wrong for once and for all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ploy

"I'm telling you Belle, he  _likes_ you."

"Don't be silly," the librarian in question hisses to Will. "Keep your voice down and don't look at him like that! He'll notice."

"He might… when he finally stops pretending not to look at  _you_ in the reflection of the window."

Despite herself, Belle turns her head abruptly to make certain that this isn't true… only to find the soulful brown eyes she dreams of night and day reflected back at her in the glass.

"Told you," Will says, but she's oblivious to it, lost in the landlord's gaze despite the distance between them. "This is getting really sad, you know."

When Mr. Gold finally looks away, his movements are harsh and determined, making very clear to Belle how horrified he must be by her attention, obviously uncalled for as it is.

"Sorry, what did you say?" she asks, mentally still locking eyes with the ever so intriguing and handsome landlord. Knowing that he would never be just as lost in her eyes as she in his, is less unbearable than thinking of how bothered the voluntarily solitary man must be by her unwanted mooning.

"You can't go on like this," Will says, gesturing at the pawnbroker as he hastily stands up and throws a few bills on the table, half of his lunch uneaten. "And neither can he."

"But he doesn't  _want_ me," she objects, only partially managing to keep the frustration out of her voice, her eyes getting unpleasantly misty. "Whenever I try to talk to him or even look at him, he  _bolts_."

"Does it still not occur to you that he likes you so much that he panics whenever he just sees you?"

"It  _has_ occurred to me, if only because you keep bringing it up. But why would he?"

"Because he can be just as hopeless as you sometimes are," Will exclaims, only barely keeping his voice down while he gestures at Mr. Gold, who has turned his back towards them while he puts his coat back on. "Really, why can't you see it? That man has an even bigger crush on you than you on him! The two of you are crazy about each other."

"I'm  _telling_  you, he doesn't like me and especially doesn't feel about me the way I do about him."

Will sighs deeply, raising his hands in frustration.

"As your friend, I can't stand this anymore."

"Then I suggest you don't bring it up again," Belle says tensely.

"All right, I won't," Will says firmly, much to her surprise. "On one condition."

"What condition might that be?" she asks, her suspicion rising when she can practically  _see_ an idea forming in his head.

"You're going to prove to me that Gold will be unaffected when he sees you kissing another man."

"Are you  _mad_? How would I do that, even if I wanted to - which I  _don't_?!"

" _I_ happen to be a man," Will says, his expression softening. "Who happens to know what this is all about. Unlike Gold, who is going to walk right past our table in a matter of seconds."

"You'll never bring him up again if I do this?" she asks, making a split of the moment decision.

"I promise," Will says with the solemnness he displays only every once in a while.

"I've got a condition myself," she says, trusting her friend but wanting to remain wholly in control. "I want to be the one kissing you rather than the other way around."

"Fine. Just as long as you keep a good look on his face to see how he reacts."

"I will."

"We've got to hurry," Will says, looking at the landlord over her shoulder. "He's coming this way."

Taking a deep breath, Belle stands up to walk around the table and approach Will, who gets up as well.

"This is weird," she mutters, wondering how she's going to minimize the awkwardness of kissing one of her best, and very platonic, friends.

"Tell me about it. Just pretend that I'm Gold to make it easier for you… Oh wait, on second thought,  _don't_ , because that would be only weirder in the end."

There's no more time to deliberate, no more time to think, for at that very moment Mr. Gold walks into her view… only to stop dead in his tracks when she leans in to kiss Will, knowing despite herself that it's now or never.

She's barely aware that her lips lightly press against the left corner of her friend's mouth. Through only partially closed eyes, all of her attention is on the man who is watching them with open mouth, his cane clattering loudly to the floor.

For a single endless second, the landlord's always completely stoic expression is entirely unguarded, showing every ounce of the longing, of the  _love_ , that Will tried to persuade her of.

Their eyes meet for a split second, prompting him to look away abruptly and move away without picking up his cane, limping out of the diner.

"You've got to be  _kidding_ me," Belle breathes now that she found the man who even refuses to  _talk_ to her looking like he lost all hope when she pretended to kiss Will as if he is her boyfriend.

"Quick, go after him," he says, but she's already on the move, picking up the cane while she rushes out of the diner.

The speed with which Mr. Gold moves underscores what she supposes is his urge to get away, to  _hide_. She winces when he practically flees in the direction of his shop, his gait painful to behold.

Trying to collect her thoughts, to think of a way to explain all this to him, Belle follows him as quickly as her heels and tight skirt allow her, inwardly cursing today's choice of admittedly impractical clothing.

Still, she reaches the pawnshop only shortly after the landlord does himself, ignoring the 'closed' sign when she purposefully barges into his shop right after him.

"Miss French," he says, the unusually throaty quality of his voice affecting her only more now that she finally knows that he isn't nearly as uninterested in her as he pretended all this time. "I…"

"Please, let me explain first," she gently interrupts him, wanting him to know the truth before whatever might happen between them will take place.

He nods in agreement, fidgeting with his fingers and watching her with dark, restless eyes.

"Will is a good friend of mine - and nothing more than that," Belle says carefully, very much aware of how the landlord's eyes widen again, this time in confusion and undeniable hope. "He wants me to be happy, just like I want him to be happy."

Encouraged by the landlord's reaction, she steps closer towards him, handing him his cane. He takes it without taking his gaze off her.

"I've had… feelings for you for quite some time, Mr. Gold.  _Romantic_ feelings," she says, the amount of air in her lungs seemingly insufficient no matter how often and deeply she inhales when he swallows heavily, his Adam's apple bobbing and his cleanly shaved jaw working in a way that has her throat go dry. "Will is convinced that you feel the same way about me, but  _I_ am convinced that he's seeing things that aren't there at all."

The landlord watches her breathlessly, eyes flickering from her eyes to her mouth and back again.

"He kept bringing it up. It drove me crazy, because I couldn't believe you might like me the way I like you and because… well, it  _hurt_ , since I thought I could never be with you. So when he proposed a way he would stop bringing you up, I accepted it."

"What do you mean?!" he asks, slightly reaching for her only to let his hand drop back to his side after barely a second.

"Will's plan was that he and I would kiss, presuming that  _you_  would think that he is my boyfriend, and see how you would react."

"That kiss, it wasn't… it wasn't  _real_?"

"It wasn't, no. But I dare to say that your reaction was."

"It was," he rasps, not withdrawing when he reaches for her this time.

"Your reaction was… revealing," she adds, shuddering when he tentatively brushes his fingers along her lower arm, as if to convince herself that she's truly there, that he isn't hallucinating any of this.

"So you and Mr. Scarlet aren't…"

"Will and I aren't a couple, no. There's only one man I want to be with," Belle says meaningfully, "only one man I want to  _kiss_. And just to be absolutely clear on this, that man is  _you_."

He makes a choking sound that has something inside of her clenching, taking another step towards her.

"Miss French, may I… may I kiss you?" he utters, sounding as if he is convinced that she'll deny his request. And yet, he asks anyway, as if only to establish that she isn't actually saying what he probably has hoped for all along.

Rather than answering him, feeling rather incapable of speech now that the man she has longed for has expressed his interest so explicitly - well, for his standards, at least - Belle closes the final distance between them and presses her mouth against his.

Mr. Gold gasps against her lips, his eyes fluttering closed, maintaining gentle pressure while he brings one of his hands to her waist, his touch careful and light but quite uncoordinated. She smiles into their kiss, joy spreading throughout her with the knowledge that he is quite literally blindly reaching for her.

Her breath shallow and her heartbeat wild, barely able to believe that this is truly happening, Belle is enchanted by the feeling of his warm, surprisingly yielding lips and warm breath against her skin to the extent that she can't help but want more.

She opens her mouth slightly, experimentally coaxing him to do the same. He groans into their kiss when she nibbles on his lower lip, his so far free hand tangling in her hair as hers makes its way to the nape of his neck, finding the skin there delightfully sensitive when she scratches him lightly.

Then her tongue is in his mouth and she can't quite tell what's happening anymore, only knowing that Mr. Gold is all around her and that all of it feels  _incredible_. Similarly, she's hardly aware that they stumble throughout the shop and that he easily hoists her onto a display case.

All she notices is  _want_ , the intensity of the heat spreading throughout her unfamiliar and utterly addicting, further fueled by the pawnbroker's urgency, his reverent hands and ragged breath.

Subconsciously, she spreads her legs for as far as her skirt allows her, dragging him between her thighs. Wanting to feel as much of him as she can, Belle locks her ankles behind his back and pulls him yet closer to herself, groaning when their newfound nearness allows her to feel just how much he wants her.

A few minutes ago she wouldn't have believed that the two of them would ever kiss, let alone share anything more than that. But now she's pressed up against the wall behind the display case with the eager Mr. Gold between her legs, kissing her senseless.

Not in her wildest dreams Belle could have imagined this kind of passion lurking behind the usually always impeccably neutral facade of the landlord. Then again, said landlord is hardly impeccable any longer as she manages to shove his suit jacket off him without breaking their kiss, happily messing up his hair some more, each movement leaving him harder against her.

Indeed, they could actually be about to make love and there's nothing she'd rather want right now, nothing she has wanted more. They are entirely lost in one another, both of them having forgotten about anything else… until her phone beeps.

Given the circumstances, it's extremely easy to ignore it, his kiss becoming in fact only more insistent… or at least, until her phone beeps again… and again.

"Damn it," she mutters, hesitantly breaking away from him. "I'm so sorry, I'm just going to switch it off."

"Miss French," he rasps, looking at her as if he has woken up from a dream, gazing at her with a despair not unlike the kind that was in his eyes earlier. "I shouldn't have…"

"If you're apologizing for kissing me like this, please don't," she replies hastily, trying to get her breathing under control and to  _think_ , groaning in exasperation when her phone beeps again.

"Are you saying that you… that you don't  _mind_?" he asks, his voice heavy with disbelief as he gestures at the two of them, her legs remaining around his waist and his arousal still very noticeable.

"I don't mind in the slightest," she whispers, caressing his face with quivering fingers. "Please don't think that I do. This isn't exactly what I had in mind when I came to see you, but I enjoyed it very,  _very_ much. In fact, I still am."

"So am I," he says quietly, his cheeks flushed and his dark eyes sparkling.

"How about I switch off my phone and we continue where we left off?"

She is thoroughly relieved when he accepts her reassurance so easily, equally endeared when he nods eagerly.

Her attention returning to her phone for the briefest of moments to silence it for the time being, Belle lingers after all when she finds out that Will has sent her no less than eight messages.

"It's Will," she informs the landlord, "asking how it's going."

"That's rather… counterproductive of him," Mr. Gold reacts, his voice still delightfully hoarse.

"I'll show you productive," she grins at him, moaning when he visibly shivers in response, "right after I tell him…"

"Tell him what?" he asks when she falters.

"My first idea was to tell him that we're about to sleep together, but I can imagine you won't approve of me communicating such information."

"I must say that I find the notion unsettling, but feel free to tell him whatever you wish," he says, sounding like he can barely believe how far they have come in the first place. "If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be here right now, after all."

"I'll just tell him that we're more than fine and that we don't want to be disturbed for the next twenty hours or so," she says teasingly, loving the way he drinks in her words and tightens his hold on her, looking utterly dumbfounded.

Belle starts to type the message while she can still focus on anything other than the distractingly attractive landlord, but gets a better idea when she finds that her fingers are shaking so badly with excitement that she can barely type two coherent words after another.

"You know, Mr. Gold, it's said that a picture says more than a thousand words."

"Indeed," he says, catching on.

That's how Belle finds herself being purposefully embraced by the landlord, the two of them shifting until she can take a picture that leaves no doubt whatsoever about the successfulness of Will's plan.

"If you don't object, I'd really like to receive that picture as well at a later point in time," he says, the uncertainty creeping back into his voice, as if he still thinks that anything he might request might be too much.

"You'd have to give me your number," she says, marveling at the prospect of Mr. Gold having that picture of the two of them, savoring it like she knows he will.

"You will have it," he says. "But I have to warn you that I'd like to have yours as well. And that I might call you. Frequently."

"You will have my number. Be warned though that I might call you just as often."

"I'm looking forward to it," he smiles.

"I might also send you… pictures."

"I would cherish them for every day of my life to come," he says, his tone leaving no mistake whatsoever that he knows exactly what kind of images she's talking about.

Belle can't say anything in return when she sends Will the picture of their loving embrace and subsequently switches off her phone, simply too delighted that they have gotten to the point where they're actually flirting.

"Miss French, please don't think me presumptuous," he says, becoming serious again, "but I'd like to invite you to my house. No matter what you might wish for us to… share together, we'll be more comfortable there than in this shop."

She smiles broadly in response, marveling at this generous thoughtfulness of his she has revealed.

"Lead the way," Belle says, happily taking his hand to follow him home.


End file.
